70 THE EELATION OF SPARROWS TO AGRICULTURE. 



Ninety-four stomachs of the tyijical white-crowned sparrow [Zono- 

 trichia leucophrys) have been examined. They were collected from 

 September to May, inclusive, in Connecticut, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, 

 Kansas, Texas, and the District of Columbia. Like most of our north- 

 ern sparrows, this species subsists during the winter almost entirely 

 on seeds. Its tendency to become somewhat insectivorous in warm 

 weather is indicated by the fact that 11 percent of the food in May 

 and September consisted of ants, caterpillars, weevils and other 

 beetles, and spiders. If stomachs could have been collected during 

 the summer months, the proportion of the insect part of the food 

 would, no doubt, have been much larger. 



Of the vegetable fare, grain possesses the first interest. It consists 

 almost entirely of oats, although in a few exceptional cases corn or 

 wheat had been picked up. Grain was found in a quarter of the 

 stomachs examined, and amounts to 12 percent of the total food for 

 the year. In May it attains its maximum of 27 percent, indicating 

 the presence of the habit of feeding in newly sown fields, thougli no 

 direct evidence of this fault has been had and it is possible that the 

 grain is largelj^ or entirely derived from scattered waste grain. Tlie 

 small grass-seed item includes crab-grass and other panicums, pigeon- 

 grass, and the Johnson grass of the South, which forms a part of the 

 diet of the lark sparrow and Harris's sparrow. 



Ragweed is as important as grass seed is unimportant, consti- 

 tuting 20 percent of the entire food. Amaranth, lamb's-quarters, 

 chickweed, gromwell, and wild sunflower are also included in the 

 weed-seed element of the food. 



Fruit did not occur to any appreciable extent in the stomachs exam- 

 ined. Audubon states that as this sparrow passes down into tlie 

 United States it feeds eagerly on grapes,^ but no especial damage of 

 this kind has been reported to the Department, and only 5 of the 94 

 stomachs contained an}^ fruit, and they only elderberries and black- 

 berries. This of course is merely negative evidence, and further exam- 

 ination may confirm Audubon's observations. Warren has noted a 

 peculiar habit of this species in eating the blossoms of bushes and 

 trees when it was migrating north in the spring. 



By way of summary it may be stated that the total damage which 

 this beautiful sparrow accomplishes appears from the present investi- 

 gation insignificant when compared with the service it renders in 

 reducing the weed-seed harvest. 



Our knowledge of the food habits of Oambel's sparrow {Zonotrichia 

 leucophrys garaheli) is exceedingly meager. Only 23 stomachs were 

 available for examination, and 11 of these were collected on Saturnia 

 Island, British Columbia, during the month of April. The remainder 

 were taken in Arizona, Utah, Montana, and the Dakotas, during the 

 months of April, May, September, and October. 



1 Birds of America, Vol. Ill, p. 159, 1841. 



